Wednesday, October 29, 2008

After the first big freeze, the leaves and the black walnuts come down almost all at once. Pick up some walnuts and put them down on the driveway.

Get in your car and drive over the walnuts a few times to break open the outer shell. Put on some old leather gloves, find a bucket to sit on, peel the walnuts.

Wash off the cleaned walnuts, let them dry. Find an old mesh bag and hang the walnuts up for a few weeks to let them cure. Put aside a few hours to shell the walnuts. Now you are a beginner hunter gatherer.

Inside, the U.P. Painters are at work, all the ceilings have been painted with Benjamin Moore White Dove. The upstairs, the kitchen and downstairs hall have two coats of BM Sea Wind on the walls. This is an off white that looks different in each room and changes with the time of day and light available. Here is a photo of the kitchen.

On Tuesday the carpenters started putting up the siding. This LP product comes primed and will be painted the same white as the trim, either this fall or in the spring depending on weather and painters.

Richard and Larry from Trudell Plumbing got the furnace going yesterday and today will get the boiler started up. Heat, light, running water....starting to feel like home.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

More gorgeous trim. The weather is cooling quickly so the painters have to use afternoon hours to get as much of the trim painted as possible, the siding comes primed so if the cold settles in before the painting is complete it will be ok to wait until spring to finish. There is snow in the forecast for Sunday and Monday.

The chimney with its stainless steel cap.

Inside the house is like a tropical zone, the drywall is complete throughout the house and the first and second floor rooms are primed, it all adds up to heaters everywhere and lots of moisture, it really feels pretty good on a cold morning. This is the mudroom, the light even with the windows covered in protective plastic is lovely.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Looking east through the dining room windows, insulation with a vapor barrier and then the drywall.

Looking west at the fireplace in the living room.

Inspections went well for electrical, plumbing and framing. The walls have been insulated with great care, blown in cellulose, foam, and some insulation batting around windows, it was a far more detailed process than I had imagined; it took five men just over a week to complete the work.

When we first started the building project we were interested in doing a geothermal heating system. We got an estimate of $53,000.00 for said system, and found during excavation for the septic system that the soil is almost all sand,with just a few thin layers of clay, not an ideal situation for geothermal. Since we also wanted to have air conditioning we knew we would have a forced air system as well so the geothermal idea was replaced by Craig's proposal that we concentrate on building a truly well insulated house.

We have an efficient boiler for the hot water and radiant heating system for the basement, a Bryant heat pump for heating and air conditioning for the first and second floor and lots of insulation. The fireplace has a Napolean fire place insert that will burn 30" logs. We will not have cold winds whistling through our house.

The drywall crew has been on the job for a week now, the first and second floors are pretty much complete, the garage and Pete's workshop are complete including a paint job, and the basement will be done this week.